As part of the author's doctoral program at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, she conducted a study to determine whether and how former sixth-grade students at Waikiki School were using the thinking processes and strategies they were taught in elementary school when they were in middle school. In order to find this out, she interviewed eight…

It was the last day of Philosophy 492, the author's college course dedicated to teaching the principles and strategies of philosophy for children (p4c) Hawai'i. Months before she joined the Philosophy 492 class, she was asked to join Emerging Humanity as a volunteer in a project that focused on enhancing the classroom environments at the…

The author was surprised by the question her son Peter asked her, "What do you want to talk about?" This is the first time her son is inquiring about something that she would like to share with him. No matter how often she hears it, it always makes her smile. It isn't just the question. It's also the very earnest face that Peter wears when he puts…

The author has been working at the same elementary school in Hawai'i for nearly twenty years. Nearly ten years ago, he argued in his doctoral dissertation that philosophy for children and its pedagogy of the community of inquiry is good for kids. His thesis is this: In today's American educational climate, with its laser-sharp focus on…

NCLB has created a climate where teachers feel increasingly pressured to ensure their students pass the test, with the result that they allocate less time for purposeful and authentic learning experiences (Kohn, 2004). Thus, rote memorization is favored over inquiry. Teachers must aim to create a classroom environment that recognizes and values…

"How come your students are so engaged?" "What are the reasons your students perform so well on the Hawai'i State Assessments and Advanced Placement Exams?" "What makes the student experience in your classrooms so different?" "How do you use philosophy to teach language arts and social studies?" "The students are always talking about your class.…

This essay is a history that relates the Japanese tradition of accepting and adapting aspects of foreign culture, especially as it applies to the learning of foreign languages. In particular, the essay describes the history of English education in Japan by investigating its developments after the Meiji era. The author addresses the issues from the…

With the advent of communicative language teaching in East Asia, the idea of learner autonomy has become a topic of discussion and a goal among language teachers. The idea of autonomy raises important questions that need to be further explored, particularly in terms of students taking responsibility for learning. While examining the English…

In October 2007, three education bills, including the Revised Teacher's License Law were approved by the Central Education Council in February and submitted to the Diet. The purpose of the Revised Teacher's License Law was "to ensure teachers systematically acquire up-to-date knowledge and skills to maintain the professional competencies necessary…

In 2001, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) released the "Rainbow Plan" as the educational reform plan for the twenty-first century. As part of the plan, MEXT will make English education activities compulsory at Japanese public elementary schools beginning in 2011. The purpose of the Rainbow Plan is to…

On January 17, 2008, the Japanese Central Education Council submitted a newly revised set of official curriculum guidelines to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. These guidelines for elementary schools will become effective in the 2011 academic year and include a controversial new policy: the…

Murasakino High School is a municipal senior high school located in the northern part of Kyoto, an ancient capital city of Japan. With a little over one thousand students studying in three grades (from fifteen to eighteen years of age), Murasakino has a distinctive scholastic tradition that makes it different from other high schools in Kyoto. Over…

Japan has a long tradition of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). A common feature of EFL courses is reliance on specific textbooks as a basis for graded teaching, and periods in Japanese EFL history are marked by the introduction of different textbook series. These sets of textbooks share the common goal of taking students from…

For the past ten years, the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM-COE) and Bukkyo University in Kyoto, Japan have enjoyed a special relationship designed to promote cooperation and academic exchanges between the two institutions. The agreement of cooperation was signed on June 5, 2000 by President Shinko Nakai of Bukkyo…

In this article, the author explores the pedagogical value of cinema's capacity to offer a "decentered" mode of perspective for the audience. The author illustrates a film's ability to present a different perspective with reference to Sean Penn's "The Pledge" (2001) and Ivan Sen's "Beneath Clouds" (2002), which show how cinema allows viewers to…